Comfort Zone
by ILoveDreamz
Summary: "I don't know if I'm quite ready for a date yet..." A love story mainly focusing on Sai, as he tries to understand human emotion and venture out of his "comfort zone".


**Comfort Zone – ch.1**

Hi guys! This is my first story, so let me know if you have any comments/suggestions! This is a love story centering around Sai, Naruto and Kaitachi (my O/C) Warning: This story contains Yaoi!~ You have been warned.

Main characters this chapter: Sai, Naruto, Sakura, Kaitachi (O/C)

A little bit about my O/C

Kaitachi is a dark haired boy with brown eyes. He comes from a clan with a close relationship to birds. He is able to grow wings on his back using chakra, and his ninjutsu appears to involve speed/teleportation. He is usually very polite and soft-spoken, his childhood was filled with a lot of abuse and frustration, so he struggles with self-confidence and trust. He is one year older than Naruto's generation, and is good friends with the group although he doesn't get too close to people.

It was a typical afternoon, sun shining above head, as Kakashi, Yamato, Sakura, Naruto and Sai were seated at Ichiraku Noodle Shop celebrating the successful completion of a particularly difficult mission. Naruto was blabbing on about his heroics from the recent mission in hopes to get a free bowl from the old man, while Kakashi and Yamato were discussing the pros and cons to a new type of kunai that was recently becoming quite popular. Meanwhile, Sakura and Sai were having a conversation of their own, mainly about Sai's recent book he had been reading, about relationships.

"You know, those guides don't really work, Sai… " Sakura said, rolling her eyes as she continued to watch him flip through the book.

"Hmm?" said Sai, who had completely missed what she had said being so engrossed in his book.

"I'm saying the only real way to get good at dating is to just go on a date with

someone!" Sakura blurted.

"A date with someone? I don't know if I'm quite ready for that, Sakura." Sai confessed, closing the book, his eyes focused on the food in front of him.

"Of course you are, Sai!" Sakura encouraged, noticing Sai's discomfort attempting to get his mood back up, "you just need to spend more time with people, most of your interaction with others is when we're out on missions for work. You just need to start spending time with people during your free time, then you'll get really good at it!"

"Hmm" Sai thought to himself "In that case… I would like to take you out—"

Sai was quickly interrupted by Sakura's nervous laughter "Oh Sai! You can't take ME out on a date, silly! Besides you're going to need lots of practice before you start to ask girls out. Why don't you just try "hanging out" first? You know, like with guys or something! Why don't you ask Naruto to hang out with you!" Sakura suggested, hoping to redirect the potential date to Naruto. It wasn't like she had anything against him or anything, but did she really want to be seen _with_ him?

""Hang out"? The book never said anything about this…" Sai admitted, hesitantly, flipping through the "H" section of the index.

"Come on, Sai! It's easy! Just ask Naruto if he'd like to hang out with you! "Hanging out" is basically just like asking someone on a date… except it's not a date!" Sakura said, with a warm and encouraging smile.

""Hanging out" is like asking someone on a date." Sai repeated in confirmation to himself "Alright, I think I'm understanding this "hanging out" more now."

Sai nodded, swallowed a couple times, mustering up the courage to ask Naruto to "hang out"

***ahem* **"Naruto?" Sai started, waiting to get the blonde's attention.

"mhmm?" Naruto mumbled, peering over at Sai with one eye closed as he slurped the last bit of yet another bowl. "Man I'm stuffed! Your ramen's the best, as always!" Naruto chirped as he patted his stomach in satisfaction.

"Naruto, I would like to ask you to "hang out" with me tomorrow" Sai managed

"Hang out? Umm what exactly do you have in mind?" Naruto asked skeptically

"Well, you see, "hanging out" is basically like going on a date…except" Sai began

"A DATE!? What are you crazy!? I'm not going on a date with you!" Naruto yelled, noticing Sakura giggling in the background "This was your idea wasn't it Sakura!? What the heck are you thinking trying to set me up with Sai!?"

At this point Naruto had attracted the attention of not only Yamato and Kakashi but those working at Ichiraku too. Sai looked back down at his bowl quietly.

"NARUTO he just wants to spend some time with you! It's not actually a date! Now look what you've done!" She said motioning towards Sai, who at this point looked quite disheartened

"Look, I don't care what you call it, I'm not dating a dude and that's fina-"

Just as Naruto was about to finish his sentence a familiar face made its way into the ramen shop.

"Kaitachi! Long time no see!" Yamato chimed in, hoping to change the ever so unusual tone his students had managed set in ramen shop

The dark haired boy looked up at everyone surprised to see them and smiled

"Wow, it's great seeing you all! Yamato-sensei, Kakashi-sensei." He let out a small bow as he greeted everyone out of respect. "You guys out celebrating or something?"

"Yeah!" Naruto started "You should have seen it! Really tough mission, we barely got out alive, but we managed thanks to my awesome-"

"Okay, I think we've all heard enough of that." Sakura bud in "Hey, Kaitachi, what are you up to tomorrow?"

"Umm… Nothing much, probably just training"

"PERFECT! Hey, Sai's free tomorrow too, isn't that right, Sai!?" Sakura chirped patting Sai on the back

"Yes, I'm free tomorrow." Sai stated simply

"And didn't you say you wanted to hang out with someone tomorrow, Sai…?" Sakura

nudged suggestively, hoping she didn't have to spell it out any more than that

"Oh, right!" Sai chimed perking back up "Yes, Kaitachi, would you like to … "Hang out" tomorrow?"

"Hang out?" Kaitachi asked innocently.

"Yes, it's like going on a date-"

"THAT'S IT I'M OUTTA HERE." Naruto announced, as he got up and stormed off.

"Naruto! It's rude to interrupt someone when they're speaking!" Sakura yelled, but Naruto was already long gone.

Kakashi and Yamato just sat there, amused by the whole situation. Yamato looked surprised while Kakashi had on his usual calm "cool guy" face. There was a moment of silence where everyone just sort of stared at each other.

"That's it! Kaitachi, will you hang out with Sai tomorrow, or not!?" Sakura demanded, glaring at Kaitachi who was, at this point, still frozen in his original position except about 10 shades redder, the word "date" still ringing in his mind.

"Umm… Of course, I'd love to…"

"Good!" Sakura announced, grabbing Sai's hand, "Come on, Sai, let's get out of here before he changes his mind!"

And she stormed off, dragging Sai with her, leaving behind the two sensei and a very confused Kaitachi.

Kaitachi finally took a seat and placed his order, still a bit red in the face from the whole ordeal. Kakashi and Yamato were squabbling over who should pay the bill until Kaitachi mumbled something that even brought a bit of surprise to Kakashi's face…

"How'd she know I'm gay?"


End file.
